what to do when Ebay miscalculate low shipping fees

[mealz_antiques]

Hi guys what should I do when Ebay calculate a low shipping fee that is lower than the contents of the item therefore making it  impossible to ship with the low shipping fee charged to the buyer.  Will appreciate your input 

[mealz_antiques]

Is your bird cage 65 X 18 X 18?  And which shipper did you use to pay $31.70?.  USPS will not ship this large item

As for the mirror, do you know anything about professional shipping, packed and ship for safe arrival?

[chrysylys]

I'm looking at YOUR listing, the one where YOU selected USPS.  The one where YOU did not provide complete measurements and weight.

[apache.falls]

G I G O situation

[victorjunkman55]

Almost 6 years here, Hundreds of sales using Calculated shipping, Never had 1 problem. When you don't enter right weight, box size, you lose. I stand by my answer to OP. Good Luck to you

[a_c_green]

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@chrysylys wrote:

"wrought iron tall bird cage with tall stand  at 65" X 18 W"

65" x 18" by what?  Assuming the cage is 18" diameter, what about the frame on the stand?  That must be wider.  What about the base? 

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Eyeballing the photos and the description, it certainly looks like 65" high overall, but the longest part in the whole assembly, the vertical support rod, doesn't look to be more than 48" at most, possibly less. 18" is described as the width, not the diameter; therefore that would be the width from one cage support across to the other, and the cage itself would be a round diameter less than that. Thus its depth is less than 18", either the diameter of the birdcage or the diameter of the baseplate. I agree that it would be helpful to give more dimensions, but you can guesstimate a certain amount from what's there.

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@chrysylys wrote:

The total weight?  Wrought iron will be heavy and the base will be heavy to counter the cage weight. 

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I agree here too that it would have been preferable to have the whole thing weighed and packed (though not necessarily sealed) before listing, so that the package weight and dimensions would be known, not just estimated, when the listing goes live.

I assume this will be shipped disassembled. Since the longest single part there is the support pole, that would determine the package length, and the 18" width (plus room for safe padding) would determine the package width and depth, or girth. I couldn't begin to guess what the weight of that thing would be, though.

[couldabeenworse]

I explained to ebay that I add the charges (Paypal and FVF only) in that space and they specifically told me it was allowable.

eBay banned that a decade ago, but more recently it has disappeared from their pathetic help pages.  So, I don't know what the current rule might be; what I do know is that their hired help probably doesn't know what the current rule might be, either.

Regardless, it is a very poor business practice to expect buyers to agree to a contract with blanks to be filled in afterward.  I would also argue that your "shipping is only an estimate" scheme also gives you an unfair boost in the search rankings.

[partial*eclipse]

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@couldabeenworse wrote:

I explained to ebay that I add the charges (Paypal and FVF only) in that space and they specifically told me it was allowable.

eBay banned that a decade ago, but more recently it has disappeared from their pathetic help pages.  So, I don't know what the current rule might be ....

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eBay has basically stopped caring what a seller charges for shipping and handling.

[couldabeenworse]

eBay has basically stopped caring what a seller charges for shipping and handling.

eBay has basically never cared about its rules.

[fern*wood]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@chrysylys wrote:

"wrought iron tall bird cage with tall stand  at 65" X 18 W"

65" x 18" by what?  Assuming the cage is 18" diameter, what about the frame on the stand?  That must be wider.  What about the base? 

---

Eyeballing the photos and the description, it certainly looks like 65" high overall, but the longest part in the whole assembly, the vertical support rod, doesn't look to be more than 48" at most, possibly less. 18" is described as the width, not the diameter; therefore that would be the width from one cage support across to the other, and the cage itself would be a round diameter less than that. Thus its depth is less than 18", either the diameter of the birdcage or the diameter of the baseplate. I agree that it would be helpful to give more dimensions, but you can guesstimate a certain amount from what's there.

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@chrysylys wrote:

The total weight?  Wrought iron will be heavy and the base will be heavy to counter the cage weight. 

---

I agree here too that it would have been preferable to have the whole thing weighed and packed (though not necessarily sealed) before listing, so that the package weight and dimensions would be known, not just estimated, when the listing goes live.

I assume this will be shipped disassembled. Since the longest single part there is the support pole, that would determine the package length, and the 18" width (plus room for safe padding) would determine the package width and depth, or girth. I couldn't begin to guess what the weight of that thing would be, though.

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Somewhere among the two separate threads about this birdcage, they stated it does not come apart and they entered the correct dimensions of 65x18x18inches and offered priority shipping.

I still believe the listing form would not have accepted those dimensions, but they stick with their story.

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@chrysylys wrote:

"wrought iron tall bird cage with tall stand  at 65" X 18 W"

65" x 18" by what?  Assuming the cage is 18" diameter, what about the frame on the stand?  That must be wider.  What about the base? 

---

Eyeballing the photos and the description, it certainly looks like 65" high overall, but the longest part in the whole assembly, the vertical support rod, doesn't look to be more than 48" at most, possibly less. 18" is described as the width, not the diameter; therefore that would be the width from one cage support across to the other, and the cage itself would be a round diameter less than that. Thus its depth is less than 18", either the diameter of the birdcage or the diameter of the baseplate. I agree that it would be helpful to give more dimensions, but you can guesstimate a certain amount from what's there.

---

@chrysylys wrote:

The total weight?  Wrought iron will be heavy and the base will be heavy to counter the cage weight. 

---

I agree here too that it would have been preferable to have the whole thing weighed and packed (though not necessarily sealed) before listing, so that the package weight and dimensions would be known, not just estimated, when the listing goes live.

I assume this will be shipped disassembled. Since the longest single part there is the support pole, that would determine the package length, and the 18" width (plus room for safe padding) would determine the package width and depth, or girth. I couldn't begin to guess what the weight of that thing would be, though.

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In the OP's other thread Here, they state that the pole cannot be disassembled and that the package weight was 13 lbs (which seems light for a wrought iron item of that size ... especially an item with a weighted base)

The cage and upper part of the pole would determine the missing dimension.

Just going by the pics, just the cage without the pole would incur dim weight charges. If the upper part of the pole is 18" wide, my guesstimate is that the cage is at least 16" diameter and 20" tall (16x16x20).

The listing was created with USPS Priority shipping.

An item that is 65x18x18 (unpackaged ... with packaging a bit more) cannot be mailed USPS. OP would have gotten an error if they put those dimensions in and tried to select Priority Mail.

Ergo ... GIGO ... no matter how much the OP protests, they most definitely entered the wrong dimensions in the listing.

[a_c_green]

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@penguins_dont_fly wrote:

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In the OP's other thread Here, they state that the pole cannot be disassembled and that the package weight was 13 lbs (which seems light for a wrought iron item of that size ... especially an item with a weighted base) 

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Huh. I see that now... In fact, in zooming in on the photos a bit more, I'm not sure what part of that would be wrought iron... it looks like shaped steel rod, with a sand-cast iron base.

The first thing I'd try would be to plant both feet firnly on the baseplate, grab the cage support rod on either side of its attaching point to the vertical rod, and try turning it counterclockwise to see if it would unscrew. I can't really picture the manufacturer shipping these in fully-assembled form when they could more easily and cheaply ship them in three pieces: cage (or rather, the cage hanging rod; I suspect the cage was sold separately), support rod and base. The purchaser just screws them together, and that's that.

[d-k_treasures]

This type of stand is usually a hollow steel tube - at least the upright is. The base is probably just a cast iron 'dish'. 

And like you, a_c, I would think that they screw off - probably both at the base and the bottom of the top harp.

[forestthrutrees]

I will say this. I used to allow eBay to place the shipping cost on my listings. Until after a few episodes with lower then cost shipping. Now I weigh and measure etc. my biggest loss was over 7.00. Nothing you can do about it other then change the way you calculate shipping. IMO 

[siayan]

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@partial*eclipse wrote:

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@couldabeenworse wrote:

I explained to ebay that I add the charges (Paypal and FVF only) in that space and they specifically told me it was allowable.

eBay banned that a decade ago, but more recently it has disappeared from their pathetic help pages.  So, I don't know what the current rule might be ....

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eBay has basically stopped caring what a seller charges for shipping and handling.

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Policy overview

Sellers are not allowed to charge eBay buyers an additional fee for using ordinary forms of payment, including credit cards, electronic transfers, and PayPal. These costs should be included in the price of the item and should not be charged separately.

[siayan]

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@siayan wrote:

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@partial*eclipse wrote:

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@couldabeenworse wrote:

I explained to ebay that I add the charges (Paypal and FVF only) in that space and they specifically told me it was allowable.

eBay banned that a decade ago, but more recently it has disappeared from their pathetic help pages.  So, I don't know what the current rule might be ....

---

eBay has basically stopped caring what a seller charges for shipping and handling.

---

Policy overview

Sellers are not allowed to charge eBay buyers an additional fee for using ordinary forms of payment, including credit cards, electronic transfers, and PayPal. These costs should be included in the price of the item and should not be charged separately.

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Also interesting in the same policy is this= Go figure.

Allowed

You can add a surcharge to the final price of an item in these 3 instances:

• Shipping and handling: You can add a reasonable handling cost that covers your costs for mailing, packaging, and handling the item. Handling costs can't be listed as a